Five Member States - Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Cyprus and Luxembourg - exceeded their dairy quotas in 2010/2011, resulting in a super levy of about €55.57 million. Total EU production remained well below the total quota volume, despite the overrun of the quotas in these Member States. Overall EU production was 6% below the total EU quotas.

Quotas were increased by 1% in the year 2010/2011, following the decisions taken in the framework of the 2008 CAP Health Check. However, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Cyprus and Luxembourg exceeded their national quotas by a total of almost 200,000 tons. Denmark and the Netherlands exceeded both their quota for deliveries to dairies and their direct sales quota, while the other Member States exceeded only their quota for deliveries. Several of the other Member States which respected their quota produced far below their respective national quota; 14 Member States recorded deliveries at least 10% below their quota.

Regarding this outcome, Commissioner for Agriculture & Rural Development Dacian Cioloș highlighted that CAP reform proposals adopted on 12 October contain various elements of flexibility which will help respond to concerns for the future. In addition, in order to address the medium to long term concerns of producers, the Commission made proposals last December to address structural issues in the dairy sector.

Each Member State has two quotas, one for deliveries to dairies, the other one for direct sales to consumers. These quantities are broken down among producers (individual quotas) in each Member State. Where there is an overrun in the national quota, a surplus levy – or "superlevy" - is payable in the Member State concerned by the producers in proportion to their contribution to the overrun during the quota year (1 April - 31 March). The levy is €27.83 per 100kg of overrun. Each year before 1 September, the Member States must report to the Commission the results of the application of the milk quota scheme over the previous period. This notification must be in the form of a complete questionnaire containing all the data needed to calculate the surplus levy.